St. Michael's in Bangkok

At 7:45 AM, we took a taxi for $10 to the airport, where we were flying to Bangkok. Luckily, there wasn’t much traffic, so we arrived with plenty of time to spare. The airport was really tiny and didn’t have any duty-free shops, even though Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam. There were only two small restaurants, and the menus were all in Vietnamese, with the waitstaff not speaking any English. The airport tax was $14 per person. As we were boarding the plane, we ran into Joanne again, the girl from our Halong Bay trip. She was also heading to Bangkok to spend the last few days of her vacation there—just like us. The flight went smoothly, and there were no extra checks for the SARS epidemic. When we stepped out of the airport, we were greeted by a huge crowd of eager taxi drivers, all claiming to know the best hotel in Bangkok. By now, we were familiar with the routine, so it didn’t take long to convince one of the drivers that we were well aware of their little white lies and explanations. We were driven straight to Khao San Road, where we would be staying for the first few days. We had planned to head back to St. Michael's to get more clothes made since we were really happy with his work last year. Unfortunately, the D&D Hotel, where we had stayed before, was fully booked, so we chose the place next door, Chart, which cost 280 baht for a double room. The hotel standards in Thailand are lower than in Vietnam, so we had to get used to that. We immediately went to St. Michael's to order more clothes. The tailor recognized us, which was nice. We ended up getting several free souvenirs—a tie, a bag, and a scarf. I got measured for two pairs of pants, while Honny was measured for a wool coat, a pair of pants, and a shirt. We were told to come back in a few days for the first fitting of the clothes. You can definitely get clothes made faster, but we wanted to spend a couple of days on an island, so we weren’t in a rush. There are no fast food restaurants in Vietnam at all, so we had lunch at McDonald's since we were craving food we were familiar with from home. The first McDonald's has made its way to Khao San Road, so we didn’t have to search for long. In the evening, we headed to Pat Pong, where there are lots of restaurants, bars, and a big night market. We found a cozy restaurant for dinner, then continued on to some bars and karaoke spots. It’s also hard not to browse a bit among all the stalls at the night market, so we ended up buying some pants for 100 baht, a T-shirt for 150 baht, and a matching set of pants and a shirt for 350 baht.